Boone County Watchdog

Saturday, February 13, 2016

Our View: We need a sane chase policy in Winnebago and Boone counties

Police chiefs and sheriffs in Winnebago and Boone counties need to meet to come up with a unified policy on car chases in the wake of Joy Lambert's death, caused by a speeding car that had been chased by a sheriff's deputy

y The Editorial Board
Posted Feb. 13, 2016 at 8:00 AM
"My mom touched so many people," Kevin Lambert said Thursday at a candlelight vigil for his mother, Joy Lambert. "One of her favorite (sayings) was 'hope and love.' If there is anything we need, it's hope and love."

Lambert, who was 55, died in a catastrophic car crash Monday morning at the intersection of South Springfield Avenue and Cunningham Road.

She leaves behind a husband and five children and many friends, including those at West Side Church of God in Christ, where she was a member for 40 years.

It wasn't fate that dictated the terms of her untimely death.

No, it was a car chase in which a Winnebago County sheriff's deputy decided to pursue a car that was exceeding the 45 mph speed limit on Springfield. The pursued car sped up, and the deputy kept chasing. Sheriff Gary Caruana said the deputy stopped chasing the car half a mile before the intersection. The speeding car kept speeding.

That car destroyed Lambert's vehicle, killing her instantly. Lambert's death is a great loss, not only to her family, but to Rockford and Winnebago County. Tributes to her fundamental goodness and great faith in God have come from all over.

All she was doing on Monday morning was going to work at BMO Harris Bank, where Lambert was a senior personal banker. She had worked 37 years at the bank, dating to when it was Amcore Bank and before that American Bank.

This should not have happened. The circumstances of Lambert's death are being investigated by State's Attorney Joe Bruscato and the state police. We strongly urge that this investigation be thorough, no matter where it leads.

The sheriff changed his department's chase policy in September from a very restrictive one to something we're calling a Dukes of Hazzard policy. The number of chases has soared.

The new policy is too dangerous. Remember that picture in the paper recently of an SUV upended on the sidewalk in front of City Hall? It happened because of a high-speed chase by a sheriff's deputy. It's a good thing no pedestrians were around.

This is not a critique of Winnebago County only. In 2014, Rockford lawyer Karen Williams died because her car was hit near CherryVale Mall in Cherry Valley. In that incident, Boone County deputies were chasing a car whose occupants were suspected of knocking over a cellphone store in Belvidere.

Was it worth the death of Williams, who probably would have been a future Rockford leader, just to chase some phone store bandits at high speed?

At the other end of the spectrum, we have the Rockford Police Department. They're too timid to chase a kid pedaling his tricycle too fast. That's wrong, too.

This is nuts. Police chiefs and sheriffs in Winnebago and Boone counties should meet and work out a unified chase policy that follows best national practices. Chases should not be ruled out entirely, but they are extremely dangerous and should only be used in a very limited circumstances.

We've simply got to get to a middle ground between "NO" and "Fire up the General Lee.

.ABOVE IS FROM: http://www.rrstar.com/opinion/20160213/our-view-we-need-sane-chase-policy-in-winnebago-and-boone-counties/?Start=2

FBI seizes nearly $300K from former Winnebago County purchasing director's bank accounts

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Posted Feb. 13, 2016 at 4:50 PM

ROCKFORD — The FBI has seized nearly $300,000 from bank accounts belonging to former Winnebago County Purchasing Director Sally Claassen and her husband as part of an ongoing federal investigation of county spending.

The forfeitures were made on Dec. 11 and were disclosed today on a U.S. Department of Justice website. Agents seized $272,490.08 from Claassen's account at Chase Bank, 401 E. State St. Additionally, $8,126.90 and $11,907.63 was taken from two joint accounts at the same bank belonging to Claassen and her husband.

The scope of the nearly six-month-old FBI investigation is not clear, and no one has been charged with a crime. However, Claassen is accused of spending taxpayer money on personal vacations, gift cards, new cabinets and countertops, furniture, and other appliances for her home, according to a draft insurance claim prepared by county officials.

Claassen's attorney, Chuck Prorok, declined to comment.

News of the FBI forfeiture of Claassen's bank accounts came as a surprise to John Sweeney, the County Board Republican majority leader. The federal investigation has been such a distraction that he and other board members held a news conference last month to reassure the public that they're doing all they can to tighten financial controls and be more transparent about how the county spends taxpayer dollars.

Federal agents have seized county bid documents, financial records and even a sauna that was purchased for an employee wellness program and kept in County Board Chairman Scott Christiansen's home for a year.

The County Board has taken several steps to tighten internal controls. A toll-free hotline was rolled out this week allowing county employees and the public to anonymously report instances of fraud, ethics violations or misappropriation of funds. The board lowered the threshold — from $30,000 to $12,000 — for spending by county department heads without the board's approval, and purchasing card spending limits were lowered for employees who are authorized to use them.

Sweeney, R-16, said he even requested that State's Attorney Joe Bruscato ask the U.S. Attorney's Office whether there are any additional steps that the County Board could take to ensure that more problems don't arise.

Bruscato said he had told Assistant State's Attorney David Kurlinkus to make the call and that “Dave was told by the U.S. Attorney's Office that they cannot discuss an ongoing investigation.”

Not knowing the scope of the FBI probe or how long it will continue understandably provides little peace of mind, Bruscato said, but that's the nature of investigations such as this.
“There's two things I wish could be over — the primary and this investigation,” said County Board member David Boomer, R-4.

Boomer, like Sweeney, faces a challenge in the March 15 primary.

“Once the investigation and the primary are over, then the board can go on about its business and just focus on our jobs as County Board members,” Boomer said. “What I fear, though, is that whatever comes of this investigation, it's going to tarnish the image of the board for years. That's the bad part about all of this.”

Auditor Bill Crowley and Finance Director Bryan Cutler audited five years of county transactions associated with Claassen and submitted their findings to the FBI. The auditor and finance offices also reviewed 2015 spending of the county's 1 percent public safety sales tax fund, searching specifically for transactions "charged incorrectly" by Claassen.

The internal investigation revealed that Claassen had falsified purchasing invoices, though county officials have declined to say how the documents were falsified. The findings were given to the FBI. The county's auditing firm, Sikich LLP, is performing additional tests of the county's checks and balances on spending.

Isaac Guerrero:

ABOVE IS FROM: http://www.rrstar.com/news/20160213/fbi-seizes-nearly-300k-from-former-winnebago-county-purchasing-directors-bank-accounts/?Start=2

Michigan Governor Snyder ordered DEQ to withhold Flint lead test results, emails claim

Snyder ordered DEQ (Dept of Environmental Quality) to withhold Flint lead test results, emails claim

By Gary Ridley | gridley@mlive.com The Flint Journal
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on February 10, 2016 at 6:43 PM, updated February 12, 2016 at 12:21 PM

This story has been updated to include additional comment from the governor's office.

FLINT, MI – Gov. Rick Snyder and other state officials allegedly withheld lead testing results from county health officials while they worked to find ways to present the information to the public, according to emails obtained by The Flint Journal.

Local health officials say the governor and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality withheld lead testing results, including results from a Flint elementary school, while the agency discussed the best way to present the information to the public.

But, Snyder's office said Wednesday, Feb. 10, that information was shared quickly after testing and denied withholding any information

Emails obtained this week from the Genesee County Health Department through the Freedom of Information Act show growing frustration on the county's part as it attempted to obtain information from the DEQ.

"MDEQ explained that the Governor prohibited releasing all Genesee County lead results until after the press conference," wrote Jim Henry,Genesee County's environmental health supervisor.

Henry, in an interview Wednesday, said county officials didn't learn of the test results until they were distributed following a news conference.

"They should have alerted the schools and they didn't," Henry said.

Gov. Rick Snyder announced Oct. 8 during a news conference that three buildings within the Flint School District tested above the federal limits for lead in the drinking water, including results of more than six times the federally allowable level at Freeman Elementary School.

The announcement included a plan to buy nine months of water from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department to end the city's reliance on the Flint River as its drinking water source.

An additional $4 million was requested for efforts to address immediate lead issues, including further testing of children in Flint school buildings where the high lead rates were discovered.

Following the announcement, a meeting was held Oct. 16 with DEQ officials, including then drinking water chief Liane Shekter Smith, and Henry, according to the emails.

According to an Oct. 18 email Henry wrote to county Health Officer Mark Valacak summarizing the meeting, DEQ apologized for not releasing school lead results in a timely manner and claimed they were ordered by Snyder to delay the release.

The governor's office, when asked Wednesday, denied they ordered the DEQ to delay releasing any information, but said the start of testing and announcement were only six days apart.

"The email seems to reflect someone summarizing a discussion at a meeting, and we are unsure what actually was said there," Snyder Press Secretary Dave Murray said. "We do know that the testing began on Oct. 2, it took some time to test 13 buildings, action was taken immediately and the Governor held a press conference in Flint to discuss the results on Oct. 8. There was no delay during that time period.

"People were quickly informed of the results in the schools, and that action on the fixtures with elevated levels was taken immediately."

The DEQ announced three days after the meeting that Shekter Smith was being reassigned. She was eventually suspended and ultimately fired Feb. 5.

However, the emails allege that the delays in test results didn't end there. Further testing was conducted at Freeman Elementary during the last week of October.

Henry emailed the DEQ's Laboratory Director George Krisztian on Nov. 3 and requested all lead testing results for water at Freeman Elementary. He added that his request should be treated as a FOIA request.

Krisztian declined the request, saying the samples collected from the school Oct. 24 presented an "incomplete picture of the plumbing system" and that samples collected Oct. 31 wouldn't be ready until Nov. 4, according to the emails.

"I am hoping to either have a conference call or a meeting in Flint with all the partners to review the results and discuss how we will present the information to the public," Krisztian wrote.

On Nov. 6, Henry again emailed Valacak, claiming he had talked with Krisztian and that Krisztian told him he had been instructed to withhold the information until the FOIA deadline of Dec. 2.

"MDEQ reminds me of a stubborn 2yr old child," Henry wrote. "Instead of doing what is right, they'll willfully take another spanking just to be defiant."

However, emails show county health officials didn't wait for the results before taking action.

Henry, in his Nov. 6 email, said he was directing county health staff to visit Flint schools, meet with administrators and ensure that water wasn't being consumed on the campuses in order to reduce the risk to students.

Flint Community Schools eventually released the results Nov. 9 in a news release after being informed of them by the DEQ.

"The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality informed Flint Community Schools that of 31 samples taken at the school on Oct. 24, samples from nine fixtures indicated water with lead exceeding 15 parts per billion, the threshold considered safe by the federal government," the district wrote in its news release. "The MDEQ informed FCS that the high lead levels were not detected in plumbing, but only in nine faucets and heads of drinking fountains."

The district had been under a self-imposed do-not-drink order for its water since late September.

DEQ officials said they still regularly work with other agencies on the city's water crisis and work to have positive relationships.

"The state DEQ is committed to having a good working relationship with the county and all partners at the local, state and federal level who are collaborating to ensure safe drinking water for the residents of Flint," DEQ spokeswoman Mel Brown said.

The city is in the national spotlight after elevated blood lead levels were discovered in some Flint children after the city changed its water source from Lake Huron water purchased from the Detroit water system to the Flint River in April 2014, a decision made while the city was being run by a state-appointed emergency manager.

State regulators never required that the river water be treated to make it less corrosive, causing lead from plumbing and pipes to leach into the water supply.

Even though the city reconnected to the Detroit water system in October, local and state officials have warned pregnant women and young children against using the water unless it has been tested because lead levels continue to exceed what can be handled by a filter.

ABOVE IS FROM: http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2016/02/snyder_ordered_deq_to_withhold.html

The rath of Rauner?

Above is from: http://www.sj-r.com/article/20160212/NEWS/160219854

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As expected, Rauner endorses McCann opponent

Friday, Feb 12, 2016

* Gov. Rauner said the other day that he wasn’t focused at all on politics. He can’t say that now. From a press release…

Governor Bruce Rauner has announced his endorsement of Bryce Benton, Republican candidate for State Senate in the 50th District, this evening at the Sangamon County Lincoln Day Dinner.
“I am proud to announce that I support Bryce Benton for State Senate in the 50th District,” said Rauner. “Bryce Benton serves the citizens of Illinois as a State Trooper. He makes sacrifices for the people of Illinois every day. He serves others, not himself. He has the utmost integrity and can’t be controlled by the special interests.”
“I’m asking you to join me in supporting Bryce Benton for State Senate,” said Rauner. “We have to send a message to the special interests – that their days of controlling Illinois are over. Illinois needs people like Bryce Benton who will serve our state with integrity and honor. We can’t afford to elect politicians who serve themselves and the special interests.”
“It’s an incredible honor to receive the support of Governor Rauner,” said Benton. “Governor Rauner wasn’t elected to maintain the status quo. Voters all over Central Illinois sent him to Springfield to turn our state around, and now he needs more allies in the Senate. The Governor has endorsed me because he knows that I won’t bow to the demands of special interests and will fight for all of Central Illinois.”

* The endorsement video…
* That video was part of a longer video played last night at the Sangamon County Lincoln Day Dinner. The county party has endorsed McCann. Here’s an e-mail last night from a longtime reader, who sent it moments after the announcement…

At Sangamon County GOP Lincoln Day Dinner. Governor Rauner had a pre taped message. Mentioned all representatives of Sangamon County including State Senator Bill Brady. Excluded McCann.
Proceeded to rail about Special interests and Madigan. He glowed about Rosemarie Long and her great leadership. Went on for a little about her.
Then went on to say he had a special announcement. Said he was announcing he was endorsing Benton. Sam was in the room. Very uncomfortable silence with only Bryce’s table cheering.
Wow.

Weird that he sent a video and didn’t show in person, but whatevs.
* Meanwhile, here’s Sen. McCann’s new TV ad, which was recorded with a phone off a television screen because his campaign hasn’t sent it to me yet…
It’s a pretty darned good spot for a general. Not so sure about a GOP primary, but we’ll see.
* Related…

* Ingraham at Sangamon GOP Dinner: It’s a great time to be a Republican
* Bernard Schoenburg: State GOP past $250,000 in support for Rep. Avery Bourne

- Posted by Rich Miller

ABOVE IS FROM: http://capitolfax.com/2016/02/12/as-expected-rauner-endorses-mccann-opponent/

Friday, February 12, 2016

Boone County Planning Department to split with Belvidere Planning Department

The motion shown below will probably pass (10-2) at this Wednesday night’s Boone County Board meeting. This may well be a response to the department’s recommendation that the text amendment restricting wind turbines not be passed.

13.5 Motion to Approve Providing the City of Belvidere a 90-day Notice of Termination of the Intergovernmental Agreement for Operation of a Joint Planning Department, and Offer Planning Services to the City and Villages in Boone County. (Approve 4-1)

Above is from: http://www.boarddocs.com/il/boone/Board.nsf/Public for the Febuary 17, 2015 County Board Meeting.

Attack Ad Skewers Rep. Dunkin Over Ties to Rauner, Rahm

Group releases ad attacking Rep. Dunkin's record, ties

By Tom Schuba

Source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/Attack-Ad-Skewers-Dunkin-Over-Ties-to-Rauner-Rahm-368520301.html#ixzz3zyV8Lduu
Follow us: @nbcchicago on Twitter | nbcchicago on Facebook

In an ad that debuted Wednesday, Rep. Ken Dunkin was criticized for allegedly colluding with Gov. Bruce Rauner and Mayor Rahm Emanuel and acting against the interests of his constituents.

"Ken Dunkin has sold you down the river to Gov. Bruce Rauner and his boys,” the ad by Citizens Against Corruption chairman William J. Kelly says.

Dunkin has come under fire from fellow democrats after holding out on a bill that could have prevented cuts from social services.

Dunkin also received a $500,000 campaign contribution from a group with Republican ties. The donation is the largest in the history of the state.

“Murders are up, jobs are gone but Ken Dunkin don't care 'cause he just got paid $500,000 dollars from Bruce Rauner's boys,” the ad says.

Dunkin responded to the ad, claiming his district is suffering as a result of political gamesmanship.

"It just shows that Mike Madigan and the party bosses will stop at nothing to maintain their power," Dunkin told Ward Room. "I wish they would spend as much time and energy trying to bring people together, as they do tearing our communities apart."

Dunkin earlier made headlines after Rauner's State of the State address when he came to a news conference with a backpack and sleeping bag promising to camp out at House Speaker Michael Madigan’s office until the state’s budget stalemate was resolved.

"I fought the speaker and the governor to get $2 billion in funding released for my constituents," Dunkin said earlier this week. "My opponent's plan is to follow the speaker's plan, which is to remain silent. The quickest way to ensure the residents of the 5th District don't have a voice is to turn our district over to another Mike Madigan rubber stamp."

The ad also chastises Dunkin for endorsing Emanuel’s 2015 mayoral campaign.

“Dunkin endorsed Rahm - Rauner's other boy - too,” the ad says. “Ken Dunkin is for Rahm and Rauner. He isn't for us."

Kelly broke campaign finance caps in 2014 when he donated $100,000 to his own mayoral campaign.

The ad will begin playing on radio stations in Dunkin’s 5th District this week.

Published at 5:43 PM CST on Feb 11, 2016

Source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/Attack-Ad-Skewers-Dunkin-Over-Ties-to-Rauner-Rahm-368520301.html#ixzz3zyUlldoy
Follow us: @nbcchicago on Twitter | nbcchicago on Facebook

Has a “new” counter-point to the Tribune emerged?

Thursday, Feb 11, 2016

* Now that the Sun-Times has finally shed itself of its meddling pro-Rauner owner, might we see more editorials like this?…

You don’t smash the engine to make a car go faster, yet that is what Gov. Bruce Rauner is doing to Chicago, the engine of Illinois.
For more than a year, Gov. Rauner has been inflicting permanent damage on one of America’s great cities — and so too, then, on the entire State of Illinois — by holding the city hostage to a rigid “turnaround” agenda that is going nowhere. Rauner charged into office promising dramatic pro-business, anti-union reforms, but he’s fast shaping up as one of the least successful and most politically inept governors in the state’s history.
It is easy to say “a pox on both your houses,” as we have in the past, laying blame equally on the governor and the Democratic leaders of the state Legislature, especially House Speaker Michael J. Madigan. And certainly, as President Obama said in his speech to the Illinois General Assembly on Wednesday, there is a need across the political spectrum for “civility and compromise.”
But increasingly, with respect to Gov. Rauner, that is a false equivalency.

They do get some things wrong. Rauner long ago abandoned his robust and harmful (to his own aims) public push for so-called “right to work” laws, for example.

* Most importantly, though, Chicago has done far more harm to itself with ridiculous tax and spend policies (low property taxes on residents and too much spending as well as too much delay on dealing with pensions) over the past couple of decades (with mayors and aldermanic majorities endorsed by the Sun-Times) than Rauner could ever possibly do in a year.

I get their anger. I share it. But the city’s leaders started this raging fire and then deliberately ignored it until they had pushed Chicago to the cusp of insolvency. Emanuel didn’t have the courage to raise taxes in his first term, and, of course, there was Daley’s (endorsed) abject cowardice. Now, the tax hikes have to be much larger and the cuts much deeper if Chicago hopes to ever survive, which is why Rauner and others are pushing so hard for the bankruptcy option.

* Illinois, on the other hand, did address its revenue problem in 2011, much to the chagrin of many. But then Rauner demanded that the Democrats not renew that tax hike and the Dems complied. Big mistake in hindsight. However, because he made that request, Rauner now owns the current state problems much more than he owns Chicago’s.

And while many don’t or refuse to believe it, state spending was cut before Rauner took over (not enough, but it was). Now it can’t be cut with any sort of reasonableness and logic and humaneness because we don’t have a budget and the judiciary is ordering spending, while some entities (like rape crisis centers and universities) aren’t getting any state money at all.

* So, I don’t have many quibbles with this…

Rauner’s performance as governor lies at the heart of the problem now. His largely inflexible demands are unrealistic and his coercive tactics ineffectual. His harsh rhetoric has made constructive compromise — the heart and soul of politics if not the private equity business — all the more difficult.
The irony here is that Rauner is championing some good stuff for which he might possibly, over time, cobble together bipartisan support. We’re with him on the need to reform the way legislative maps are drawn to make elections more competitive. We see merit in term limits for legislators. There’s a good argument that Illinois could go further in reforming its worker’s comp laws.
But Rauner came to Springfield and demanded it all, right away. Without even a nod to political realities, he front-loaded his entire agenda into the first year of his four-year term. And we’re troubled by his seeming obsession with curtailing the power of unions; is it so complete that he cannot see that he will never get a right-to-work law through the General Assembly?

Again, Rauner, to his credit, did dump the so-called “right to work” issue last year. But his obsession with unions is downright bizarre.

* The governor also seems to enjoy kicking people and entities when they’re down, and he’s been far too eager to do that to Chicago. So the editorial is spot on in that regard.

And he’s mostly contained the state meltdown to Chicago, where problems with schools, crime and the state’s only majority African-American public university are rapidly coming to a head. He should be trying to help, no doubt, but he would say he has offered help. Trouble is, that was all wrapped up in his anti-union obsession. He really needs to find other ways to make this state more competitive.

But you can’t deliberately hit yourself in the head with a hammer and then sue the manufacturer. Well, you can (this is Illinois, after all /snark), but you’d look pretty silly doing it.

* Either way, and despite my strong disagreements, having a “new” Chicago counterpoint to the Tribune is most definitely needed. That paper has been dominating this debate for far too long.

- Posted by Rich Miller

Above is from: http://capitolfax.com/2016/02/11/has-a-new-counter-point-to-the-tribune-emerged/